Italian avant-garde metallers EPHEL DUATH have announced a new vocalist for the band, Guillermo Gonzales.

Ephel Duath guitarist and founding member Davide Tiso comments: "Guillermo has been close to Ephel Duath for some time - he almost joined the band before in 2003! He was going to take the place of the clean vocalist Davide Tolomei who left Ephel Duath after The Painters Palette. Then we realized that Guillermo's aggressive vocal approach was going to clash with Lucio and we all agreed to abandon the idea. In any case, from that moment on Guillermo started to be very active with Ephel Duath, helping me with lyrics and the development of the concepts so far. The whole idea behind the songs 'Vector' and 'Vector Third Movement' from Pain Necessary To Know come from a conversation we had together. More recently, he was the person that pushed me to write the short stories I did for Through My Dog's Eyes.

"I always thought that one day I was going to have a band with my friend Guillermo, then when Lucio realized that he was forced to abandon the band, we both agreed that he was the right person to call to properly continue the activity of Ephel Duath. We are already working so hard, that I didn't have the time to realize how excited I am to start this new adventure... What I know is that I'm really, really happy and genuinely trusting for the future of my life, and my band."

New vocalist Guillermo is a professional poker player and the band even plan to finance some future tours through playing poker.

Guillermo comments: "I've been in the Italian extreme metal scene since 1992. For 15 years I've been the lead singer of Mothercare, one of the most important Italian underground extreme metal bands (boasting collaborations with Napalm Death and Nasum). I met Davide in 2002 when we both lived in Venice. He's been my dearest friend since then. We often tried to do something together, but our roads always went in different directions. Now it seems our roads have finally become one.

"2 months ago I left Mothercare because of internal contrasts and I felt like my life was over. 2 weeks ago Davide told me that Lucio was going to quit and asked me to become Ephel Duath's new singer. A new life started. Lucio is a great performer and has been a great partner for Davide; I'm honored to be his heir and I'm insanely excited about being in a band that I always considered one of the most innovative and original in today's music. In my "regular" life I am a poker journalist and a professional poker player. Since 2006 I'm the editor in chief of Poker Sportivo, the main Italian poker magazine. I live now in Verona but I'm often touring Europe to follow all major poker tournaments. I've got a blog where I write about my poker life, cinema, music, creative writing and other stuff."

Check out Guillermo's blog at http://manglewax.blogspot.com

Luciano Lorusso George, vocalist for Ephel Duath since 2003's The Painters Palette, was forced to leave the band for economic and personal reasons. Ephel Duath have always been a band of coincidence and change, constantly evolving, and as fate would have it, after recording an album about a dog, Luciano has become a full-time dog groomer - the irony of which has not been lost on main man Davide.

Davide states: "Lucio is together with me the guy who has always believed most in this band so far. The news about his departure has been shocking, especially for him as he had no choice - and he never thought about his life without the band. I'm so sad he's no longer part of this project, especially after all the work he's put into Through My Dog's Eyes. Ephel Duath has always tried to surmount any obstacles put in its path and this is probably one of the most difficult we've ever faced, but we will continue because challenges are the roots of this band and it's what makes us stronger. And after recording an album about a dog, who can fault fate with this twist they've laid upon us?"

Through My Dog's Eyes, is out on January, 26th 2009 via Earache.